Family Devotions During the Holidays

 The following is a transcript of the Family Ministry Podcast episode titled "Family Devotions During the Holidays."

(00:00)
Hello, and welcome to the Family Ministry podcast, where we equip you to disciple your kids God's way. I'm Maranda Gomes, and in today's episode, we're going to talk all about family devotions during the holidays. Now, I can already hear some of you fussing at me. You're saying, or at least you're thinking, "Oh, she better not be getting ready to talk about Christmas because you're not allowed to talk about Christmas in my world until after Thanksgiving." Well, just hold your horses for a minute, because first I am going to talk about Thanksgiving.

(00:33)
But I also am going to address Christmas during this episode because I want to help you prepare for the Advent season, which starts on December 1. So if I waited until after Thanksgiving, it wouldn't give you very much time to prepare. So I thought I'd go ahead and talk about it now, and then you'll be ready for that expectant Advent season. But first, before we get into details, I'd like to define family devotions. We had an episode a couple of episodes ago all about family devotions.

(01:09)
Now, if you haven't listened to that episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. I think it will encourage you. But we didn't really talk about what family devotions are, so let's define it. I define family devotions as any intentional family activity that draws us toward God. So this could look like a number of different things.

(01:32)
This could look like Scripture memory. It could look like prayer. It could be Bible reading. It could be talking about the Bible around the dinner table. It could be instilling biblical values in your children throughout regular daily life. Any and all of those things fall under that umbrella of family devotions in my book. Now, let's talk about family devotions during the holidays.

(01:58)
I have found that the holidays make devotions both easier and more difficult. It's easier because during Thanksgiving and Christmas, our thoughts naturally lean toward God a little more just because of the season. We're in a thankful season or we're celebrating the birth of Christ. So our thoughts just lean that way more naturally during the holidays. But it's also harder because we're really busy during the holidays. So what I wanted to do is give you some tips and some pointers about how to navigate family devotions in that season.

(02:38)
It can be simple but meaningful at the same time. And it's also a really good time to start doing family devotions or to restart doing family devotions. So if you've never done it or you have backed off from it, now is a good time to get back in it or to get into it for the very first time. So let's start by talking about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to talk about the Lord and instill thankfulness in all of your children.

(03:13)
And I have a really simple way that I do that in our family, and we call it the Thankful Jar. It is just a mason jar where I tied a little raw twine around it to make it look cute. But you don't even have to do that. It's just a mason jar. And then some little slips of paper.

(03:36)
Sometimes I've used post its. Sometimes I just cut up regular printer paper. Sometimes I cut up old copies of things that didn't get used just to use up that paper. Just little slips of paper and a pen. I put those on our dining room table.

(03:55)
I encourage the kids to write something that they're thankful for on a slip of paper each day and put it in a jar. And when they were too little to write, and for Joseph (if you know my son Joseph, he's disabled and he can't write) I would ask them what they're thankful for and I would write it on the slip. And then we fold the slip of paper closed and we put their name on the outside of the slip, and then we stick it in the jar.

(04:25)
My kids love this tradition. Throughout the month of November, I usually find them at the table writing 10-15 little slips of paper at a time. I don't limit them on how many they can put in there. They just love to list out the things that they're thankful for and put their name on it and put it in the jar. So we do that throughout the month of November.

(04:54)
And then what we do is on Thanksgiving Day in the morning, we get out our Thankful jar. Ed and I do this too. Mom and dad do this too. We write things we're thankful for and put them in the jar. And then we get out the jar on Thanksgiving morning and we sort out all the papers and give each person their own papers. Then we take turns reading our little slips and listing all the things that we're thankful for. And then we pray and we thank God for all of those things and all of the million other blessings he has given us.

(05:32)
That has become a really loved tradition in our family. And it is so easy, guys. It is so simple. Grab a jar. If you don't have a jar, I've used a bowl in the past. Use a serving bowl, use an envelope. I mean, it really doesn't matter what you put it in. It's just fun. And it helps our hearts to be thankful.

(05:57)
It draws us closer to God, because when we have thankful hearts, we're drawn closer to God because we're thankful to Him for all of these things that He's given us. So that's a very simple thing you can do during the Thanksgiving season.

(06:15)
Now let's move on to talk about Advent. Advent in traditional churches. I think it starts four Sundays before Christmas. I'm not sure. I don't know the details of all of that. But in our home, we just started on December 1 because we have an Advent calendar that goes for 25 days, or 24, I can't remember. So we just start on December 1.

(06:41)
I highly recommend getting an Advent calendar of some type going in your home. It does not have to be elaborate. It can be one of those felt calendars where you pull a figure out of the pocket and stick it up on the top display part every day. We have traditionally used that in our family. This year, our felt calendar is looking a little worn, so I got one of those wooden calendars that has little wooden boxes with the 24 numbers on it, and I am putting little objects in each drawer that pertain to that day's Bible reading.

(07:24)
But you definitely do not have to do something that elaborate. It can be really simple. I've seen people do paper chains. Make a paper chain with 24 pieces on it, and each day you tear one off. You could even just take a regular paper calendar and mark off each day with a marker. It does not have to be complicated.

(07:50)
It's just the idea of counting down the days until Christmas. And what this does is, it is a great way to teach kids about anticipating and waiting for the Lord. When we're doing this, we can remind our kids that God's people waited on the Messiah for hundreds of years. They waited and they expected Him to come.

(08:18)
Now, when your kids are counting down the days, are they counting down the days for Jesus? Probably not. They're counting down the days for presents. They're anticipating presents. And I just want to say that is okay, because we can use that excitement and expectation to lean them towards Jesus in it and say, "Just the way you're excited and expectant for your gifts, we can be excited and expectant for Jesus."

(08:56)
The people in the Bible times were waiting and expecting the wonderful gift of Jesus coming to earth. And now we're waiting and expecting the wonderful gift of Jesus' return. So use that natural anticipation they have for something that is probably the most fun day of the year. Use that and relate it to how we can wait and expect joyfully the return of Jesus. So it's okay. They're counting down to presents. It's okay.

(09:36)
Now, what are you going to do when you use that Advent calendar? What we do is each day we pull one of the numbers out and put it up or pull the box out and see what's in it. And then we have a small portion of Scripture that we read together that day. There is a very simple advent reading plan on the Not Consumed Ministries website that I am planning to use this year.

(10:09)
It's very basic. It's just a few scripture verses each day. It's simple, it's easy to do, and it is enough. If you look back to the previous episode on Family Devotions, your little bit is enough. Because in God's hands, it becomes enough to feed thousands, just like the loaves and the fishes, remember?

(10:34)
So don't think, "Oh, I have to do it all or nothing. I have to cram 15 scriptures each day, and I have to quiz them to make sure they remember it." No, you don't. Your little bit is enough. Read a few scriptures together, talk about them, and then pray over them.

(10:56)
Very simple. Takes a few minutes. That's all it takes. And what you'll find is, when you're doing this regularly--whether that's an Advent calendar or at other times of the year--when you're discussing God's Word regularly, you're reading it together and discussing it, you'll find that you end up discussing it at other times, too.

(11:16)
They'll ask you a question in the car, or something will come up at dinner time, and you'll talk through it. What that does is it just makes them knowledgeable about scripture. It makes them curious about God's Word, and you'll find that they're thinking about it at other times, too.

(11:33)
Now, as far as the Advent calendar, what kind to get? I do advise one thing. There are lots of Advent calendars that you open up each day, and the kids get candy, or they get little toys. My personal preference, and what I advise is to stay away from those things because what they do is they kind of commercialize something that's supposed to be about joyfully expecting and waiting. So I have never used those. I don't want to commercialize it. I want to keep it about Jesus as much as I can.

(12:16)
I don't want it to be, "Oh, we do this because we get a treat every day." I kind of want Jesus to be the treat, so that's how I do it. There's no shame if you choose something else, but that is just my thoughts and my recommendation.

(12:34)
Now, what you should do, of course, is attempt to do the Advent calendar every day, December 1 through 24. Is that going to happen every day?Probably not. It never does in my house. We always end up missing a day here, and a day there. And what we do is we just catch up. We catch up the next time.

(12:54)
If the scripture reading is short enough, we'll just do two or three at once. If not, we'll just do what we can, and we'll open up all the boxes or put all three little figures up, and we just catch up. It's no big deal. It's no big deal if you miss a day. Don't give up.

(13:13)
Just catch up and keep moving. Keep counting down. And what's great about the Advent calendar is you have that built-in accountability because your kids are so excited for Christmas to come that they really want to count down each day. So they'll remind you, "Mom, can we do the Advent calendar?" "Dad, we forgot to do the Advent calendar. Can we do it now?"

(13:37)
They'll remind you. So there is some built in accountability there, right there in your home. So that's what we do for the Advent calendar. And then the other thing that we do is on Christmas morning when they wake up, we gather together, and we just pray for a minute before opening presents. We pray, and we thank God for sending Jesus as our Savior and to make a way for us.

(14:06)
It's quick. It's simple. It's nothing drawn out. Some people like to read the Christmas story again. We don't really do that because we've read it throughout the Advent season.

(14:20)
But just do something to recognize the Lord before you start opening presents, because you know what? Jesus is a fun guy, and he wants us to celebrate him with fun things. And for kids, getting presents is really fun. I don't think he's a bit offended that we give each other presents on Christmas and celebrate in that way. I think he loves the joy of giving, and I just think he loves it. So what we do is we just pray and invite him into it, and it's very simple.

(14:54)
That's all I've got for you guys today. If you have any questions or comments, feel free. It's always to email me at familyministry @ cobblestonechurch.com. Or just find me at church and talk to me about it. Thanks for listening.

(15:07)
Until next time. See ya.